Partnership Against Child Exploitation (PACE) Consortium
The Effective Approaches to Ending the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Fragile Contexts (EAPEC) Programme was implemented by the PACE Consortium from 2019 until 2022. The PACE consortium comprised of:
- Child-focused and international NGOs (War Child & World Vision);
- Organisations addressing child labour in supply chains through partnership with the private sector (UN Global Compact Network UK & FiftyEight);
- A media organisation with legal and digital expertise (Thomson Reuters Foundation); and
- A research partner (Columbia University through the Care and Protection of Children Network).
With a budget of £12 million, EAPEC was a project funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (formerly, the UK Department for International Development). It aimed at bringing change to the lives of children so that they may enjoy their right to be protected from the worst forms of child labour. EAPEC’s target countries - Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia-represented very challenging contexts, often ridden with conflict, a lack of respect for the rule of law and weak governance.
The Programme referred to the ‘worst forms of child labour’ (WFCL) as defined by Article 3 of ILO Convention No. 182, which occurs when children are sold, trafficked, in debt bondage, serfdom or forced labour, forcibly recruited into armed conflict, used in prostitution or pornography, and engaged in hazardous work. By any measure, many WFCL can be classified as modern slavery.
The Programme tested and measured innovative approaches to understand what works in reducing WFCL. It addressed WFCL through tackling the supply and demand issues (which result in child labour) with a holistic intervention focusing on four main Outcomes:
- Increasing children’s agency
- Facilitating access to appropriate alternatives to WFCL
- Strengthening legal and policy environment
- Improving supply chain due diligence and duty of care from the bottom up
The UN Global Compact Network UK (UNGC UK) and partner FiftyEight, lead on Outcome 4. We supported the private sector to strengthen their supply chains to prevent the use of child labour.
In collaboration with the UN Global Compact Network RDC, UNGC UK hosted a series of business roundtables in the DRC to raise awareness of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL) and provide a platform for identifying and sharing best practices to address this issue. Internationally, UNGC UK launched a Child Labour Working Group (CLWG), and hosted the Elimination of Child Labour Webinar Series to further identify good practice at a global level and ensure the project benefits from existing expertise among some of the world’s largest companies.
Click here to view the final PACE report.
For further information, please contact the Head of Social Sustainability, Bee Delgado or Senior Project Manager, Marcella Mizzi.